


Hideaway Heart-To-Heart

by Stories_By_Bagels



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles X
Genre: Chapter 5 Spoilers, Gen, chapter 12 spoilers, tagging just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:59:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6407875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stories_By_Bagels/pseuds/Stories_By_Bagels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>chatting on the beach can help when you're not feeling your best</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hideaway Heart-To-Heart

**Author's Note:**

> TBH i kind of did this for my own pleasure... I know the whole introspection thing has been done by a couple of others in this fandom and I'm sure that it'll keep being told but i just want my kids to be happy and together...
> 
> ((also i have like no idea how to tag this;;;)

It had been a long sequence of events that never seemed to take a moments pause. Being taken out of a capsule and thrust head first into what is essentially the military. Fighting off anything that threatened humanities last bubble. Discovering that you were no longer a human. Making dozens of new friends and enemies. It all happened in such a small span of time that Cross felt like her head never stopped spinning from the moment her and Elma took their first steps out of Starfall Basin together.

“Heya Cross.”

Hearing someone call her name caught Cross off guard and her hand instinctively went for her pistol. She had specifically left the city so that she didn’t have anyone come and sneak up on her like this. When she turned her head and saw a familiar head of bleach blond hair approaching her with two bottles in each of his hands she moved her hand off the holster.

“Hey Frye… How’d you find me?”

Cliffside Beach wasn’t a very common place for people to go and randomly check for their friends. While it wasn’t a super secluded area it was hidden from most passing by thanks to the hilly terrain and also the cliff faces that framed it on the left and right sides so having Frye track her out here came as a surprise. Cross always considered it as her own place of respite. The Forfexes that roamed the shoreline were far from a threat at this point in her BLADE career. They, along with the splashing tides of the ocean were some of the only noises you could here.

“Can I join ya for a little? Or are you gonna shoot me and put me outta my misery?”

Cross had been sitting on the edge of where the sand and the grass met with her knees to her chest. She patted a spot on her left and Frye sat down, offering one of the bottles to her. She adjusted her legs so that she sat criss-cross and took the opened bottle from Frye. A light breeze picked up and Cross brushed her short bangs back and took in a breath, the comforting scent of the ocean filling up her nostrils and lungs. Frye took a small swig from his drink, looked over at Cross for a moment and then looked back up at the clouds that were floating by.

“So what’s eating you?”

“What makes you think something is ‘eating me’?”

“Because you’re out in the middle of nowhere, alone, just sitting. Just kinda tips me off that somethings up. Remember, I grew up with Phog who, let’s face it, isn’t the greatest when it comes to expressing his emotions. He would do the same thing whenever he was upset except in his case he would go and sit out in the backyard and pretend to read.”

Cross took a sip from her drink to try and stall for time. Frye mirrored her and when Cross still didn’t give an answer he let out a breath.

“I guess first off, congratulations on getting back the Lifehold, close call…”

Cross could only muster up a hollow laugh in response. Since Frye hadn’t been there for the final showdown she wasn’t sure if he knew the scope of what had really happened inside.

The man gave a large yawn and stretched his hands above his head careful to keep the bottle upright in his hand.

“Can you believe all the shit that’s happened to us? I went from some drunk asshole without any family and like two friends to a drunk asshole back with an old family member and a freaking platoon of new friends….. So what are you doin’ all the way out here anyway, I mean other than moping? Doesn’t Elma or anyone of those higher ranks have some kind of new super amazing mission for ya?”

“Even if they did I wouldn’t take it right now.”

Frye looked over at Cross with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah? How come?”

“I know mims can’t really experience TRUE fatigue but I somehow feel exhausted. I don’t WANT to go on another grand adventure. I kind of just want to get to know this little part of the planet better first… And maybe get to know myself a little better?”

“You don’t sound super confident about that last part but I get’cha. Kind of a shame that BLADE’s biggest, baddest, newest is already tuckered out from just a few months though.”

Cross let out a sigh and brought the bottle to her lips but didn’t take a sip and instead set it to the side of her.

“So are you unhappy with your choice? Do you regret joining BLADE?”

Cross didn’t respond at first and kept her gaze straight ahead, observing the scuffling Forfex as they dug around in the sand. She had never really considered the question before since any kind of negative feelings that she may have felt she suppressed since the Lifehold took priority at the time. She laid down on her back with her hands behind her head, one of her legs flat and the other bent

“Thinking about it I don’t regret it. What’s happened to me in the past couple of months has really changed me. I feel like I was able to almost live a second life… I never really regained my memories of my time on Earth ever since I got here so any old experiences, relationships, and all that will be lost to me. But what I know now is that I had someone important enough in my life to get me a spot on the Whale and that I should use that spot to my greatest potential…”

Frye’s head titled a little when he heard the confession. He looked over at Cross with interest.

“No shit? Not your parents? Where you’re from? Nothin’ at all?”

Cross shook her head and kept her eyes up on the sky. “I really only know my name, but when I first told it to Elma I wasn’t a hundred percent that THAT was right.”

“Sounds kinda shitty but then again I thrive off other people so for me, if I couldn’t remember a single damn thing that had happened to me before I’d be pretty pissed. But I guess I also wouldn’t cause I wouldn’t remember… maybe?”

Frye started to laugh, leaning back and letting it reach up into the clouds. Cross softly chuckled and sat back up and then stood in one fluid motion, picking up her bottle and walking to the shoreline. The setting sunlight stung her eyes a little but she just couldn’t help looking at all the beautiful colors that Mira’s sun provided them. She heard Frye shuffling behind her and his footfalls crunched against the sand as he came up behind her.

“So if you don’t regret your time in BLADE, why all the doom and gloom?”

Cross turned to Frye, “Because if I don’t know who I am then how am I supposed to help others figure out who they are?”

The man gave a smile. It was one of the rarer genuine ones. Not clouded by any kind of buzz or set on by some kind of antics. It was just a soft smile that turned up the very corners of lips. “That’s the thing Cross, s’not your job. We BLADEs make sure that everything keeps going during all this intense change and adjustment.

Frye placed his hand on Cross’s shoulder.

“You ain’t here to make someone’s life decisions for them. You’re here to make sure that they got somewhere to do it.”

“Frye…”

He removed his hand and shoved it into his pocket turning towards the endless blue ocean and taking a quick sip from his drink. “S’been my mantra since I joined the military. I ain’t in it to be some hot shot medal winner. I’m just going out there and making sure that whoever is on the other side isn’t gonna hurt whoever’s on our side.”

The Forfexes that had been along the shoreline before had begun to shuffle off for the night which left only the ocean’s lapping waters to fill the empty air. Cross and Frye both took sips from their drinks and just listened to the sound of the ocean for a little. In the distance Cross thought she could hear cries of some of the other indigens that liked to skirt around the tops of the hills. She gave a quick look over her shoulder and then followed a far-away flock of bird looking creatures with her eyes.

“How do you think things would have played out if I HAD retained all my memories of Earth, Frye?”

The man chuckled from deep in his chest and cracked his neck. “Can’t really give ya an honest answer ‘cause apparently neither of us got an idea what you were like. Yeah, sure, NOW you’re a good wholesome girl who cares about all the pressing issues and shit like that but was that who you were? We sure this persona you have now isn’t somethin’ you conjured up to fit in better with your pals since most of us think the same.”

Cross blew a raspberry. “Why such the philosophical answer?”

The man shrugged his shoulders, “Guess the night air just makes me overthink shit…”

“So to answer my original question, why’d you come all the way out here? Also how did you know I was here? Did you follow me?”

Frye rolled his eyes as he lightly punched Cross’s arm. She smirked at the contact.

“I came out here ‘cause I knew you’d be here. Couple of missions back you said somethin’ ‘bout how much you enjoyed this place ‘cause of it’s more ‘secluded nature’.” Frye made air quotes around the last part of the sentence. “Also seeing as how the past missions you’ve been on were stressful I can’t really blame you for wanting to come to your ‘secluded place’ in order to unwind and reflect. I do the same thing ‘cept at the diner and with about five times the amount of booze. So no, I didn’t follow you like some freak.”

“Wow Frye, I didn’t think you cared enough about me to actually listen when I just mumble stuff…” Cross’s tone was sarcastic, with a playful smile dancing on her lips. She drained the rest of her bottle and set it down in the sand.

Frye shook his head, “And I can’t believe that you’d paint me as some insensitive asshole.”

Cross giggled and looked over at Frye. He was smiling as big as she probably was.

Cross blinked a few times, a question she had wanted to ask coming to the tip of her tongue. _He’s not going to be mad if you ask, he’ll probably just laugh a little and-”_

“Why so pensive? If you got somethin’ to ask then go ahead and ask.”

Cross didn’t realize that she had screwed up her face in thought. “H-How did…. How did you get your scar?”

Frye snorted as he gently touched it with his left hand. “Would you believe me if I said I got it while fighting off a bear back when I was in basic and they dropped us out in the woods for a ‘team building exercise’?”

Cross’s eyes widened to the size of a Skell tire and Frye burst out laughing. He watched as Cross deflated in disappointment.

“I can’t believe you bought that for a second! Not gonna lie, that’s my favorite part of answering the question, watching people react to me tellin’em that.”

Cross clicked her teeth and lightly shoved Frye off to the left. He easily steadied himself and put on a more serious expression.

“Well when I initially got it I screamed. Hurt like a bitch at the time. Both my hands covered in my own blood and not really sure what was going on around me. At some point they managed to put me under… When they were going to get it all sorted apparently they just wanted to sew my socket shut and have it be done with, not bothering with any kinda replacement. Keep in mind this was the military so they weren’t keen on footing the bill for a whole glass eye rig but I guess someone had insisted that I get a falsie and so they installed one. It all healed up relatively well, I mean I never got an infection or anything but damn if it made it hard to go on in just normal everyday life. Everyone lookin’ at’cha like you were something that shouldn’t be there. But that’s whatever…”

“So the eye you have is-”

“Yep, my left eye is a fake. When I first got it I’d pull it out and do freaky parlor tricks for my buddies and they’d always freak out and then call over a bunch of their pals and I’d just do it again. When I got a LITTLE more mature I stopped dickin’ around with it though...”

Frye fell silent and brushed his scar with his right thumb a few times and then drained his own bottle.

Cross chewed on her lip, taking side-eye looks over at Frye. He looked so relaxed, his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulders pulled back in that way that always made him look so proud, his form solid and still.

“Hey Frye, thank you. I know sentimental crap isn’t really your thing but- I genuinely mean it…”

“I mean; I didn’t really do much. I just chatted with someone who I actually kind of care about over some bevs, nothin’ super amazing.”

Cross blinked a few times and snapped her head to look at Frye. While he had his gaze diverted still Cross could see a rose tint on the tops of Frye’s pale ears. She smiled and closed the small gap between them. She brushed a feather light kiss on Frye’s stubbled cheek and when she stepped away he had a dumbstruck expression.

“Would you like to walk back with me Frye?”

“Uh- y-yeAH. I-I’d loVe to…” Frye coughed a couple of times trying to play off the obvious voice cracks and Cross didn’t hide the smile on her face. She picked her bottle up and then went to take Frye’s partially, gloved hand. He didn’t protest but she could see the rose blush becoming more pronounced and even starting to tint his cheeks a little. Frye’s warm hand was lovely to hold if not for the fact that Cross’s own hand was kind of cold from being exposed to the night air for a while.

They walked past where they had been sitting before and then over the crest of the hill that helped to hide the beach. Cross could see the glowing blue of the Lifehold Core tower and for the first time since she had awoken she felt allowed to relax and let a sense of accomplishment fill her up.


End file.
